Excerpt from the article: At the Top of Their Game by Laurie Wink.
Women executives excel at juggling career and family responsibilities.
Ashley Dickinson became COO of Community Health Systems in Valparaiso in January 2014. Previously, she was COO at the CHS Northeast Regional Medical Center in Kirksville, Mo. Although she's early in her career, Dickinson has moved steadily upward in her chosen profession and is focused on her goals.
Dickinson began charting her health care career course in childhood. She comes from a family of health care workers. Her father is a certified athletic trainer and her mother is a surgical nurse.
“I've always wanted to be in health care,” she says. “I've always been fascinated by medical and health care systems.
After completing high school in suburban Tulsa in 2002, Dickinson earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Oklahoma State in 2006. She completed an MBA and a master's of science degree in health administration at the University of Alabama. During graduate school, she applied what she learned in the classroom to real world situations in the university affiliated hospital.
A particular incident stands out for Dickinson. She was job shadowing an orthopedic surgeon who had a patient with a diagnosis requiring treatment by the only specialist in the state, who lived quite a distance away. Dickinson felt for the patient, a struggling 30-something single parent, who was suddenly faced with the inconvenience of traveling to receive necessary health care.
“My eyes were opened to the issues of health care access,” says Dickinson, who subsequently shadowed hospital administrators and learned more about the role of finance in their work.
She appreciates the CHS Porter Health Care System's affiliation with the Loyola University medical center in Chicago, which gives Valparaiso patients access to specialized care that is not far away. “We want to keep patients as close to their families as possible,” she says.
Dickinson also values the breadth of her health center's services, which include cardiovascular treatment, women and child services and neonatal intensive care.
Dickinson's husband is a certified registered nurse. The couple was drawn to Northwest Indiana because of the concentration of health care facilities offering rich employment opportunities for both of them. They've purchased a house and are settling into the Valparaiso community. Their five-year plan for the future includes having children and, eventually, Dickinson wants to become a hospital CEO.
“It has been an exciting journey for sure,” Dickinson says.
Of course, things don't always go as planned. Sheryl Sandberg found that out in May, when her husband Dave Goldberg unexpectedly died while exercising during a family vacation. Sandberg and Goldberg have two children. One thing does seem certain: Sandberg and the accomplished women in this profile will continue striving to achieve their goals and sharing what they've learned along the way.
